Is justice too much to trade for peace?

Legacy of the Troubles

Recent events in Northern Ireland serve as a reminder that due legal process has too often been sacrificed to stop a return to violence. But that should not mean, says a seasoned observer, abandoning the Good Friday Agreement or jeopardising the post-conflict achievements
Northern Ireland’s peace process has had some fraught days. And we are certainly not out of the woods yet. The arrest and subsequent release of the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, should not of itself endanger a peace process which has survived for nearly two decades. And yet the intemperate reaction from Republicans to an entirely legitimate, indeed obligatory, police investigation has dealt it shock waves. The Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’ attack on the Police Service of Northe